The intersection of Taylor Street NW and New Hampshire Avenue NW in Petworth, looking north toward Grant Circle. The line of sight between drivers traveling from Grant Circle southward and pedestrians approaching the crossing from the west is blocked by parked cars.

by Amanda Wilson & Elizabeth Floyd
America Walks scholars, guest contributors

📝 Two local scholars are studying safety along New Hampshire Avenue and are looking for your input. Fill out the NH Ave pedestrian safety survey. 📝

No matter our differences as people, we all have one thing in common: at one time or another, we are all pedestrians. This was top of mind for me when my neighbor and I signed up for America Walks Walking College, an online course to help equip citizen urban planning acolytes. America Walks is a flagship U.S. pedestrian advocacy organization with a mission to empower organizations and individuals to make their communities more walkable.

I don’t have a car and mostly cycle. My friend walks and drives, with a toddler in tow. We signed up for America Walks Walking College because we both wanted to gain a foundational recipe for making our roads safer for people who walk, bike, scoot, and roll, at any age, for any reason. In the urban planning lexicon, all these people are considered pedestrians.

In our Walking College group, we learned about what grassroots advocates are doing across America to improve local walkability, from “walk audits” to DIY road redesign efforts like Crosswalk Collective LA and A Better Block (watch A Better Block’s founder’s TED Talk if you can.) One of our fellow students is a planner right next door in Takoma Park to make Maple Avenue more navigable to all road users.

We got acquainted with the basic toolkit of street redesign elements offered by the National Association of City Transportation Officials that have been proven to improve safety, including at intersections. Anyone with a map and a little design savvy can apply any of these designs to an image of an existing street to showcase future possibilities.

I also gained an even deeper respect for urban planners, who not only do the technical and creative work of making streets safer, but also do the emotional labor of serving as mediators in the face of a public often resistant to change.

*While New Hampshire Avenue falls within a zone with a high “walk score” on WalkScore.com, the score might feel misleading to those crossing east and west.*

FILL OUT THE AMERICA WALKS NH AVENUE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY SURVEY

For our final project, we decided to focus on the stretch of New Hampshire Avenue between Georgia Avenue and Grant Circle in Petworth. We both live on opposite sides of the avenue and cross it regularly. While our stretch of New Hampshire Avenue has a high walk score on Walkscore.com, it still feels vast and unsafe to cross at several points. We found the high official score to be misleading, especially when moving east and west.

*Petworth’s* *Tree Equity Score* *plummets along the segment of New Hampshire Avenue between Randolph Street NW and Grant Circle.*

Next, we looked at our corridor’s Tree Equity Score, a score that aims to put a quantitative value on local tree benefits, from cool shade, cleaner air, and traffic-calming effects. Surprisingly, the score plummets between Randolph Street NW and Grant Circle, pointing to a need for a closer look. Thanks to Petworth Blooms for the work they are doing along this corridor to plant flowers, adding more reasons to walk.

Our research eventually led us to DC’s Master Plan and a reality that city planners are well aware of. For this neighborhood known in planning spheres as East Rock Creek Park, there are bike lane corridors and small streets for those going north and south, but when going east and west, things are much harder for pedestrians.

Georgia Avenue and New Hampshire Avenue slash through the neighborhood like superhighways that pedestrians must bravely forge, whether they are going to school, work, play, grocery shopping, appointments and more.

When ANC 4C’s Vision Zero Committee recently analyzed traffic data from the DC Vision Zero Portal from 2017 to May 2022, they identified New Hampshire Ave from Georgia Avenue to Grant Circle as a priority area for major safety improvements (alongside many other streets.)

That same stretch of road is identified as a future Bicycle Priority Network by DDOT, but there is no immediate timeline on the project and there’s no guarantee it will move forward without steadfast advocacy. There’s no news on when the finalized plan for long-awaited safety improvements to Grant Circle NW, which has seen many crashes over the years, will be released, although DDOT said it hoped to make the final plan public by the end of summer.

The intersection of Taylor Street NW and New Hampshire Avenue NW, looking east across NH. The crosswalk is wide. While pedestrians can activate flashing lights to cross, they must rely on the goodwill of drivers to stop. Flashing lights may even give pedestrians a false sense of safety.

In the meantime, neighbors aren’t waiting to mobilize for pedestrian safety. There is a new group called Petworth for Safety Streets that is inviting neighbors to sign up for their email listserv if you believe in connected streets that prioritize road safety for “all modes of movement.”

For our final project for Walking College, my colleague and I are conducting a survey to hear what people have to say about crossing New Hampshire Avenue in Petworth so that we can better understand the lived experiences of diverse pedestrians in our neighborhood. Please fill out our survey by September 30th if you can, although we’ll keep accepting responses indefinitely after that. Survey results will be provided to anyone who requests them in our form.

I’ll report back to Petworth News once we’ve compiled our survey results. In the meantime, keep an eye out for people who walk, bike, scoot, and roll and remember we are all pedestrians.

FILL OUT THE AMERICA WALKS NH AVENUE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY SURVEY